Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses

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  Dalyrmple does not rise to the heights of G. K. Chesterton but he is in the same grand tradition. These short, lucid and highly penetrating essays strike at the core of much we see about us in the confused and shapeless social eddies that swirl about us.

  Like Chesterton he is well read and therefore able to connect many of the dots that would otherwise go recognized. His penetration into art and writing as well as his devastating critiques are some of the best in modern writing. Well ... (show more)

  Dalyrmple does not rise to the heights of G. K. Chesterton but he is in the same grand tradition. These short, lucid and highly penetrating essays strike at the core of much we see about us in the confused and shapeless social eddies that swirl about us.

  Like Chesterton he is well read and therefore able to connect many of the dots that would otherwise go recognized. His penetration into art and writing as well as his devastating critiques are some of the best in modern writing. Well done...

  This is one of the few books that I would rate "a must read." (show less)

   

   

  by Arch Van Devender on Sep 24, 2009 at 05:07PM

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  Is poverty the root cause of crime? Absolutely not, says Theodore Dalrymple.

  From his years of medical practice serving the British underclass and his extensive world travels, Dalrymple delivers a hard-hitting, in-your-face battlefront assessment of the underbelly of modern culture, and with that, an implicit prescription for addressing our bleakest cultural problems, including poverty. Anyone wanting real insight into the problem of evil in the world will get it in this book. And if we w... (show more)

  Is poverty the root cause of crime? Absolutely not, says Theodore Dalrymple.

  From his years of medical practice serving the British underclass and his extensive world travels, Dalrymple delivers a hard-hitting, in-your-face battlefront assessment of the underbelly of modern culture, and with that, an implicit prescription for addressing our bleakest cultural problems, including poverty. Anyone wanting real insight into the problem of evil in the world will get it in this book. And if we want to help the world and its poor, Dalrymple's work must be on our reading list, or we'll wind up supporting misguided notions that hurt the very people we're trying to help.

  In hard-hitting example after example, Dalrymple exposes the politically incorrect truth about human nature, and uncovers the danger and absurdity of commonly held beliefs about cultural problems and their cures. "The first requirement of civilization," Theodore concludes, "is that men should be willing to repress their basest instincts and appetites: failure to do which makes them, on account of their intelligence, far worse than mere beasts."

  This book is a series of essays that chronicles these failures, some of which I found shocking and compelling. Notable essays were:

  The Frivolity of Evil - documents the prevalent sexual promiscuity, parental neglect and mass bastardy in Britain that spring from social policies which radically disconnect reward and conduct, allowing the elevation of sexual pleasure and convenience over parental responsibility.

  The Dystopian Imagination - shows how the rise of doomsday fiction was inspired by a century of utopian dreams, "coercive social engineering to achieve them," and millions of murders committed by technology-leveraged utopian planners and their followers, all done in the name of a gospel of secular salvation.

  Trash, Violence, and Versace - unveils the notion that "it has always been the job of artists to conquer territory that has been taboo," and shows how this perverse ethic of freedom turns virtue into vice, and vice into virtue, to the demise of true culture.

  The Uses of Corruption - perhaps the most eye-opening of all the essays. Shows how well-meaning bureaucrats and the bureaucracies they defend actually perpetuate more evil than good, and prevent the poor from climbing out of the poverty trap. In a perverse irony, he shows why slightly corrupt bureaucracies do more good and provide more freedom for humanity than honest ones.

  The Starving Criminal - gives us the real reason the British poor are malnourished, and what we can do to solve the problem.

  When Islam Breaks Down - reveals Islam's massive dilemma and why the fanatical upsurge of fundamentalist Islam is evidence of its impending death.

  Dr. Dalrymple's extensive, first-hand experience shows how the Law of Unintended Consequences is killing culture and people all over the world. "Having spent a considerable proportion of my professional career in Third World countries in which the implementation of abstract ideas and ideals has made bad situations incomparably worse," laments Dalrymple, "and the rest of my career among the very extensive British underclass, whose disastrous notions about how to live derive ultimately from the unrealistic, self-indulgent, and often fatuous ideas of social critics, I have come to regard intellectual and artistic life as being of incalculable practical importance and effect." Put simply, ideas have consequences. Worldviews matter. And those who promote erroneous ideas and worldviews, either directly or indirectly, are creating an unintended but devastating impact on culture.

  He points out the fact that, as a whole, "the world is governed by little else than the outdated or defunct ideas of economists and social philosophers." These outdated and defunct ideas perpetuate as naive cultural gatekeepers (i.e. screenwriters, journalists, pop singers, and artists) continue to develop information and media promoting this sinister but hidden worldview. Dalrymple's book is a call to action for a new generation of gatekeepers to shed these defunct ideas and restore what's left of our culture to its rightful place. (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook-användare on Jan 08, 2009 at 12:14AM

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